April is financial literacy month, help educate our students!

Junior Achievement USA® (JA) and The Allstate Foundation released today surprising findings from the annual Teens & Personal Finance Survey, which was expanded this year to include parents for the first time.

The 2015 survey reveals that nearly half of teens (48 percent) think their parents will help pay for college but only 16 percent of parents (of teens) report planning to pay for post-secondary education. Junior Achievement USA has commissioned the Teens & Personal Finance Survey for the last 16 years. The 2015 study was conducted online on Junior Achievement's behalf by Harris Poll in January 2015 among 801 parents of teens ages 13-18 years old and 800 teens ages 13-18 years old.

"Based on this year's findings, it is obvious that parents and teens need to have honest conversations about money management, including paying for college," said Jack E. Kosakowski, president and chief executive officer of Junior Achievement USA. "Together as a family, it is important to develop a plan for life after high school – whatever that looks like for your family. As an organization that strives to empower all young people to own their economic success, JA will continue to help open these channels."

Financial literacy programs like Junior Achievement (who our team personally supports through donations and volunteerism) can help parents and teens plan for major expenses such as paying for college, and educate them about other personal finance topics such as money management.

To learn more about the survey results and to learn about how you can start these conversations with our students, visit www.ja.org.